The blog of author Betsy Kerekes

Some day, Baby. Some day.

For reasons unknown to me, family members enjoy offering Baby Joseph food and laughing at his complete disinterest in this strange multi-colored stuff we’re putting in our mouths.

My youngest daughter said to him in her high-pitched little voice, “You want chips and salsa, Joe? You want some beer?” (Please note that she was consuming neither.)

But the goofiness doesn’t end there. My oldest spilled dry Rice Krispies on the floor. Did she sweep them up right away? No. She brought out our hamster to do the deed for her.

When Punzi’s cheeks had reached max-capacity, my daughter had to resort to the dust pan. Apparently Punzi made some space, however, as she jumped in after it. I do like to teach my family members not to waste food.

Some maker of hair care products — shampoos, rinses, combs, brushes, pomades — should use one of those as a mascot. “When you’re made mostly of hair, you take its care seriously.” Or, “You may never have hair care needs this severe, but isn’t it nice to know that if you did, you could rely on…?”

LOL! And here I thought it was a Tribble 😀 Having a pet to clean up the floor is nice and convenient especially with a kiddo like Joseph. Then again, they’re convenient when us older folks get clumsy. Our dogs are handy that way! 😀

Oh, you were so devilish with placement of the break in the e-mail before the jump to the blog. “She brought out…” and I expected some account of the baby’s being held by the ankles and attempted to be used as a carpet sweeper or upright vacuum cleaner!

Do you also manage this with typesetting page breaks in your books? I was sure that in at least one place in a paperback edition, Robert Heinlein worked that trick.

Meanwhile I’ve had trouble just getting editors to not “correct” perfectly good words I’ve used in a ms. that the editor’s vocabulary didn’t include, like “monopsonist” or “diplomate”. But when I’ve been an editor, an author complained that I didn’t change a grammatic “mistake” that isn’t necessarily one, where I trusted he meant it when he wrote, “I am as an expert in..,” just because most people would leave out the “as”.

No, they each told me they just didn’t know the word. So Lincoln Review changed “monopsonist” to “monopolist”, and Nomos changed “diplomate” to “disciple”. At least these days they could find words online. Meanwhile my friend Bob is telling our other friends I did a bad job proofreading & copy editing a short story of his 5 years ago because NOW he checked and saw I let thru that “I am as an expert” plus one missing letter in another word. The missed typo was my failing, but considering how admittedly dyslexic he is, he puts in so many that I think I’m doing a great job for what he pays just to knock the mistakes down to a few.

I like the way she thinks even if the initial intention wasn’t meant to be wasteful but who can I delegate this inconvenience of mine to. I suppose there is almost always someone willing to do the dirty work for whatever benefits.

Unfortunately, that’s how my dustpan looks on a regular basis between my shed hair and the dog’s as well as remanents from the kid’s breakfast. Honestly, I don’t know how there is always so much cereal on the floor considering how much I see them shovel away. I can only assume it must multiple on contact.

Newly released!

My books

101 Tips for a Happier Marriage is now available in India and surrounding countries. Just click the image. This version was even spotted in Kenya!

101 Tips for a Happier Marriage--Korean edition (comes with a purple bookmark)

Not my book but worth advertising!

If you like slice of life stories, particularly about the diversity of the American South, you'll love this book. Heck, if you like relaxing with entertaining stories and having a good laugh, you'll love this book!